personality as well. Facing
the world as it is today is important to cultivate belarasa
or compassion (Joseph, 2020). In this increasingly individualistic era, there
are many communities formed, both in the real world and cyberspace. Human
identity as a social being is an identity that can be called lasting. Times
change, circumstances change but people still need communities to sustain them
so that they can survive and prosper, which in turn requires other human beings
to engage in them and compassion is a means that encourages human involvement (Mackay,
2018). To that end, it makes more sense
for humans to cooperate than to compete: in fact, our survival as a species
depends on it. It is better to act altruistic to others who need help, such as
those affected by natural disasters, injured in accidents, missing, or weak and
confused parents even frightened. Compassion can lower anxiety levels, be able
to encourage tolerance to difference, build a better society, forgive each
other (Mackay, 2018). The more a person shows his compassion, the more
authentic that person is. (Joseph, 2020).
How
important it is for man to be himself and authentic or genuine. A workforce
that performs with authenticity will also perform with its compassion. How high
the difficulties faced with compassion that students have (in this case labor)
can certainly overcome it. That is the need for personality excellence that
simultaneously intellectual excellence so that there is a balance in human
beings. Compassion answers the needs of this age (Joseph, 2020).
For that
there has been some research related to belarasa. The
study titled "Aquinas on compssion: has he
something to offer today" which is a response to the opinions of Saint
Thomas Aquinas shows that Aquinas offers a carefully calibrated flavor as a
decisive emotion, a gradual development in the model of friendship, the
relationship between cognition, effectiveness, and action (Ryan,
2010). Similar research commenting on St. Thomas Aquinas's opinion on belarasa shows that human beings are driven by experience
while for God in looking at and alleviate human suffering is not a belaras, but God shows His love freely and embraces anyone
who suffers. (Reynolds, 2013).
Psychologically
it's very good for mental health. The existence of suffering in humans encourages
people to make a belarasa (Seppala
2013a). Research in terms of physiological properties of nerves that are
thought to evoke belarasa with meta-analysis of
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in terms of belarasa
and related neural processes shows the results that occurred neural processes
consistently identified as related to belarasa. (Kim,
Cunnington, and Kirby, 2020).
Research in
the field of health on belarasa has also been
conducted. Belarasa is very necessary in the
treatment process because belarasa is not an option.
However, belarasa too often considered less important
than other treatments (Haslam, 2015). Widely recognized and accepted the
increasing research belarasa. However, there is still
no consensus on definition and lack of a strong measure of psychometry. For
that research review entitled "What is compassion and how do we measure
it? A review of dinition and measures" proposes
the definition of belarsa and offers a systematic
review of self-assessed actions and observers. It is also proposed that belarasa consists of five elements: recognizing suffering,
universal understanding of human suffering, feelings for people who suffer,
tolerating uncomfortable feelings, and motivating to act/do to alleviate
suffering. (Strauss et al., 2016).
From the
studies that have been done shows how important it is to belarasa
from various aspects, such as transcendent, spiritual, psychology, anatomy of
the human body, health services. By belarasa it will
show human authenticity in acting and socializing. In this study, the authors
focused on building habits for young people, namely millennials. The focus is a
new thing that is worth researching because there is no research that discusses
it.
The postmillenial generation to call the generation after the
millennial generation, namely generation Z. (Dimock, 2017). Secara
longgar, generation Z is a person born between 1995
to 2010. Generation Z is a descendant of a true digital generation who from a
young age, they have been exposed to the internet, social networks, and mobile
systems. That context has resulted in a hypercognitive generation that is very
convenient by collecting and referenting multiple
sources of information and by integrating virtual and offline experiences. (Francis,
Tracy and Hoefel, 2018). They value individual expression and avoid labels.
They mobilize themselves for a variety of reasons. They strongly believe in the
efficacy of dialogue to resolve conflicts and improve the world. Finally, they
make decisions and connect with institutions in a very analytical and pragmatic
way. (Parker, Kim and Igielnik, 2020). That's the postmillenial generation, which is generation Z which is
the descendant of the true digital generation. They value individual
expression, believe in dialogue to resolve conflicts, and make decisions in
analytical and pragmatic ways.
Thomas
Aquinas uses the term 'misericordia' as a means that a person is so affected by
the suffering of others that it moves to alleviate that suffering.
'Misericordia' more specifically signifies the elimination of the suffering of
others, namely the provision of relief to alleviate suffering. (Ryan, 2010). It
is literally "suffering with". Belarasa
involves feeling moved by the suffering of others so that the heart responds to
their pain and the heart moves to help the suffering person in a certain way. (Neff,
2016). Belarasa is a deep awareness of suffering and
a desire to alleviate it. (Sinclair et al., 2017). Belarasa is
different from empathy or altruism. Belarasa is an
emotional response when feeling suffering and the heart is encouraged to help
relieve it. Empathy is a profound experience of the feelings of others.
Altruism is an act that benefits others that may not be accompanied by empathy
or empathy (Seppala, 2013b).
Belarasa is the
noblest of human love, because it is a form of love that gives without hope to
receive a reward. With regard to interhuman relations if human beings have
mastered the art of belarasa, then man can end the
relationship well (Mackay, 2018). Belarasa is a feeling that arises when faced with the
suffering of others and motivated to relieve it (The Greater Good Science,
2020). Thus, belarasa is a response to suffering as
the noblest form of love expressed by feeling the suffering of others and
relieve it in a certain way or way. Belarasa can be
referred to as truly belarasa if it has reached on
the act of helping to alleviate suffering. Belarasa
is not only a feeling of suffering but belarasa is a
feeling of suffering up to real deeds to alleviate suffering.
Basically humans
evolved to share. That's how people survive taught by our ancestors. (Keltner,
2015). Belarasa is most easily felt when people have
similarities with each other (DeSteno, 2012). Therefore, belarasa
need to be built so that the more days grow and the real action that looks like
the shape. An example of practice throughout the day is the practice of
improving behaviors that favor social relationships. (Seppala,
2013a), done sincerely and without asking for a reward (Tremaine, 2015). Loving
yourself is also a form of belarasa because there is a
self-depracity always attacking and blaming himself
and that is not a form of belarasa (Krieger
et al., 2016).
Belarasa is man's
noblest love, as a form of giving love without expecting retribution; selfless
love. Thus it shows a sign that we recognize our same
humanity. (Mackay, 2018). We can also give charity, listen to others kindly and
lovingly, exemplify kindness (The Greater Good Science, 2020). Belarasa involves showing characteristics such as empathy,
sensitivity, kindness and warmth – and when this is lacking, too often one of
the underlying factors of poor care is caring it is duty-based care rather than
people-centered care. Duty-based attention is often not personal and not what
people want. That is the various forms of embodiment
of belarasa (Haslam,
2015). Thus the forms or various forms of belarasa are 1) doing deeds, 2) listening to others well
and lovingly, 3) giving examples of acts of belarasa
by doing acts of retirement. The condition of doing so is sincere, without any
strings attached.
Belarasa involves
kindness towards one's own self, because respecting one's self means having an
attitude to others. The ability to think of a person's distressing experience
as turbulent and ind abiding and something that
connects with others rather than isolating one's self from others, and
awareness of one's own thoughts, feelings and emotions (Neff,
2016). Given the inescapable human nature of the suffering of others, then belarasa can have a transformative positive psychological
effect on human beings. (Bayır-Toper, Sellman, and Joseph, 2020). There are several
benefits of self-esteem, namely lowering anxiety levels, encouraging tolerance
to differences, mutual respect, willingness to forgive. (Mackay, 2018). Belarasa is also able to reduce the sense of stress within,
building self-esteem and confidence, empathy, generosity, and the ability to
work together (Seppala, 2013a). Belarasa
can also reduce fear. (Jazaieri,
2018). Belarasa can open one's heart, enlarge
perspective and identity, increase happiness and health (Tremaine,
2015).
Everyone's
dream is to live happily without problems. The reality is that the condition of
inner satisfaction feels un achievable and experienced but can be achieved.
Inner satisfaction is found when a person realizes his subconscious level,
being at the time of finding joy and pleasure in the little things that come
his way (Shakti, 2017). Happiness is happy in the personal life experienced
immediately and at this time. Life satisfaction is happy with personal life.
Happy because loving yourself, having fortitude / patience, connecting with
others, can help others (Barker, 2014). From the explanation above, it can be
concluded that the benefit of self-awareness is to provide inner or life
satisfaction because of one's own ability to accept one's own self, empathy,
generosity, ability to work together, help others, have fortitude, and connect
with others.
The benefit
of being aware of the environment is encouraging people to build a better
society by retaliating against negative behaviors with positive behaviors
(Mackay, 2018). That way it can improve well-being because it increases the
sense of interhuman connectedness that creates a sense of happiness (Seppala,
2013a). Belarasa can reduce suffering and contribute
to well-being, make connected to the environment and nature, pity others,
increase the possibility of peace, transmit to others and spread out (Tremaine, 2015).
The benefits
will be felt if it is implemented so that the impact of implementing belarasa can be felt both on yourself and on the
environment. The implementation of belarasa has an
impact on yourself and the environment. Following the benefits of implementing belarasa, it can be found impact for yourself, such as
having inner satisfaction by stated that his life is happier, confident, easy
to appreciate, forgive, cooperate, empathize, and be generous. The impact that
can be felt for the environment is 1) the environment is increasingly in a
positive condition, 2) residents of the environment are happy, in the sense of
healthy, happy, cheerful, no stress, 3) working hand in hand to achieve
understanding with each other and peace.
Belarasa will
connect people with each other by giving a positive influence so that it arises
to make each other do so. The act of belarasa will
spread and encourage others to do mercy (Seppala, 2013a), (Tremaine, 2015), and
(Mackay, 2018). The act of belarasa is a form of
implementation of belarasa. In order for the forms of belarasa
continue to be carried out consistently, it is necessary to build a habit of belarasa. For that training is required (Seppala,
2013b). Regular meditation and love is one way to
build a habit of belarasa. With meditation it can
help people regulate emotions for the better, enhancing the human's capture of suffering
(Seppala, 2013a). Meditation can increase a person's responsiveness to
suffering (Seppala,
2013b).
Another way
is to get used to six ways to build a habit of belarasa,
namely 1) practice belarasa in a proven way, such as
taking a course, meditation belarasa for 20-30
minutes, making reflections do belarasa; 2) the
practice of belarasa in everyday life by giving a
response to suffering directly by doing belarasa,
such as praying, giving funds, or appropriate actions; 3) establish the
intention to establish a habit of belarasa with a
daily schedule; 4) gather evidence that has been done, whether to regularly do
the scheduled; 5) get support from the environment that the people around him
are also working on the habit of retirement; 6) be open to possibilities and be
loving of yourself, for example praising yourself when one is obedient to the
schedule that has become his intention, when failing not to blame himself but
to rise again and do his intentions (Jazaieri, 2018).
In terms of
building habits based on the two opinions above found similarities, namely both
build habits with meditation belarasa, namely
contemplating the events of suffering that exist around us. Follow Jazaieri's opinion (2018) then
meditation is included in the first or first step. Therefore, in building the
habit of belarasa in this research based on the
opinion of Jazaieri (2018), that is, there are six
steps to build a habit of belarasa.
METHOD
This
research is a qualitative approach with case study method, which is a series of
scientific activities conducted intensively, detailed, and in-depth about a
program, events, activities of both individuals and groups (Rahardjo,
2017). This research aims to find out the efforts to build belarasa
habits, various forms of belarasa, and the impact of
the implementation of belarasa on UKDC students who
are ASA scholarship recipients. The subjects of this study numbered 105 UKDC
students who received ASA scholarships. They belong to generation Z or also
called the postmillenial generation. Generation Z was
born between 1995-2010, which at this time, they were on average still students.
This
research was conducted with a natural, holistic and in-depth background.
Natural means that data acquisition is done in a real-life context without certain
treatment. Holistic is a researcher trying to find information that will be
used as data comprehensively, in the sense that it leaves no information left.
In-depth means researchers conduct in-depth interviews including digging up
information from the student's residential environment. Data collection is done
by observation, interview, and documentation (Rahardjo, 2017).
Data analysis techniques are distinguished
into three steps, namely 1) data reduction is from the data obtained in the
field and then the data is done the process of selecting, focusing on
simplification, laying, and transformation of rough data that arises from
records written in the field. 2) Data display is the activity of arranging data
in such a way as to form tables, graphs, phie chard,
and others so as to provide the possibility of drawing conclusions and taking action or action. 3) Verification, namely after
presenting the data and analyzing and then taking conclusions or verification (Sugiyono,
2015).
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
From the
data collected in the field through interviews, observations, and
documentation. It is known that the asa stands for
Academic Scholarship Aquinas, in the name there is the word Aquinas which is
the name of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Saint Thomas Aquinas himself was a
mid-century figure who had the concept of thinking about belarasa
famous for his book summa Theologiae. In accordance
with its name, the Asa Board of Spirituality Section introduced the belarasa as taught by Saint Thomas Aquinas. The introduction
of belarasa is carried out through a two-month
course, namely November – December 2019. They are invited to explore the values
of belarasa from understanding the concept to the
implementation of the practice of belarasa. In
January – July 2020, they designed and implemented the practice of belarasa as a habituation effort.
There are
three things that are sought answers from this research, namely 1) efforts to
build habits belarasa, 2) various forms of belarasa, and 3) the impact of the implementation of belarasa. As explained above, in order to build the habit
of belarasa, a two-month course is held. Over time,
after the second week of the course there were 81 scholarship students who
declared themselves to continue taking the course until completion. They follow
the steps by drawing up a plan and building intentions by drawing up a
schedule, and follow follow-up activities in each group that has been formed.
Each group consists of 10-11 students.
1. Efforts to build habits
belarasa
In
an effort to make habits work, the next step is to follow the steps of Jazaieri (2018), whose data can be considered in table
1 below. The count of 100% of the number of students who participated in Table
1 is calculated from 81 students who committed to completing the course.
Looking at the above
exposure, it can be concluded that the six steps to build a habit of belarasa
have been carried out well by the ASA Board and scholarship recipients. The ASA
board facilitates the implementation of six measures of habituation. Scholarship
recipients respond by implementing the schedule that has been prepared and
willing to follow the guidance. The trustee carries out his/her duties of
monitoring the practices of the students according to their group so that the
scholarship recipient students get help in trying to habituation belarasa.
This is thanks to the
support of the ASA Board and the Trustees of each Group. All scholarship
recipients or 100% of scholarship recipients initially take a habituation
course. After the second week, 77% expressed the ability to take the course
until completion and practice it according to the steps so that they are called
as definitive participants. It was found that 77% of scholarship students
consistently carry out exercises to build habits, ranging from building
intentions, implementing, and refleting them.
2.
Various forms of embodiment of belarasa.
Belarasa open only feelings, belarasa
is an attitude from participating in the suffering of others to the action of
alleviating suffering. So, if only to the level of suffering then it can not be called as belarasa. By
paying attention to step II in Table 1 above, there can be found various forms
of embodiment of belarasa from scholarship
recipients. In terms of the nature of its acceptance for the recipient of the
action, it can be concluded that there are two forms of action, namely 1)
actions that can be directly accepted or felt because it is directly accepted
in the form of visible or real acceptable, such as goods or Java and 2) actions
that cannot be directly accepted, namely actions that the recipient does not
receive directly into his hands or to his/her personal self. , like praying,
opening up insights. Furthermore, it can be noted in table 2 below.
There are three types of
various forms of embodiment based on the perpetrators, namely personal,
cooperation, groups. In fact, the actions based on the perpetrators can not be
grouped definitively. Because, what is done by the individual can also be
carried out in groups or in cooperation or networking. Providing funds, santuan
in the form of goods or services can be done in private, groups, and even
cooperation. The act of praying can also be done in person, groups, and
cooperation. Thus the forms of implementation based on the perpetrators can be
the same as each other, what distinguishes is the number of perpetrators and
how to do it.
Found three kinds of
belarasa based on the type of action, namely 1) doing charity, 2) listening to
others well and lovingly, 3) giving examples of acts of belarasa by doing
things in a way. In detail can be noted in table 4 below.
Grouping by type of action
also cannot be drawn a firm line between the form of belarasa for this type of
charity, listening to the outpouring of heart, and giving examples of acts of
belarasa. This type of praying or praying activities can be included as a
charity activity and provide examples of acts of belarasa. All forms of
belarasa that belong to the type of acts of charity and listening lovingly can
be included into the type of action gives an example of the act of belarasa.
Thus it depends in terms of which view it looks at.
3.
Impact of the implementation of belarasa
A good deed draws nearer to good works. There
is a pull from one good deed to another. The implementation of good deeds, in
this case belarasa cause an impact both for yourself
and for the environment in which asa scholarship
students are located. There are several answers that are impact on one's own
self, which are actually the same nuance, namely experiencing inner satisfaction
characterized by a feeling of relief, peace, and happiness. These answers, such
as the heart being calm, happy, joyfully peerless, relieved can help ease the
burden on others.
The impact on society is the environment to be
clean, disciplined, rule-abiding. For example, in the boarding house, there is
a student who sees his friend's room is clean, neat, organized so that it makes
the occupants krasan then encourage other students to
be in the neighborhood to clean and tidy the room. The majority of individuals
who live with scholarship students who are accustomed to doing so will be
encouraged to do the same, namely alleviate the suffering of others by belarasa.
CONCLUSION
Efforts to build a habit of belarasa
are carried out by following six steps put forward by Jazaieri
(2018). Of the definitive course participants, it was found that 77% of ASA
scholarship students consistently carry out exercises to build habits, ranging
from building intentions, implementing, and re-implementing them and then implementing
them again.
Belarasa is the act of feeling the suffering of others
and lightening them. Therefore, it is found that various forms of belarasa embodiment can be grouped based on the nature of
its acceptance for the recipient of the act of belarasa,
namely the benefits are directly accepted and indirectly acceptable to the
recipient. Various forms based on the perpetrator, consisting of three types,
namely personal / individual; cooperation; and groups. Third, various forms
based on the type of action consists of three types, namely charity, listening,
giving examples of acts of belarasa.
The more ordinary people do belarasa
then the more people can feel the impact. The impact of the implementation of belarasa consists of two kinds, namely self-impact and environmental
impact. The impact for one's self is in the form of inner satisfaction or life
satisfaction because someone who does the belarasa
will feel happy, happy, relieved, grateful for having the opportunity to do so.
The impact on the environment is that we can attract others to do so that it
has a positive influence. For example, when we live together with others and
look dirty surroundings then we clean it sincerely selflessly no matter what,
at any time without complaining then the action will encourage others to do the
same. With other small actions, such as turning off the faucet that forgot to
turn off after use, turning off the lights, unplugging the mobile phone charger
gives a positive influence in the environment of the scholarship recipients living
both in the family and outside the family, namely boarding or in dormitories.
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Building Belarasa Habits in the Postmillenial
Generation